Designing Limited-Stop Bus Service

[dkupf]

This is an open letter I gave to NYCT regarding Limited-Stop Bus Service design.

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            The intent of the Limited-Stop Bus Design Guidelines are to speed service in order to make such services more attractive.  However, there must be a balance, as that there must not be a significant negative impact for local riders.

            For New York City, this balance is when a local bus route has a headway of every six minutes or less.  In Los Angeles, however, it is every 7½ minutes or less.  Research in each city have confirmed these thresholds.  Besides, would you wish to wait, on average, 50% longer for a local bus?  I didn’t think so.  This is why the B6 and Bx1 do not and will not have Sunday limited-stop service until the relevant thresholds are reached.  Wider headways cannot and must not be considered.

            I hereby propose an amendment to the two-hour span, as that it should apply only to outside of the Weekday Peak.  For the weekday peak, limited-stop service should be considered when a local bus route has a headway of every six minutes or less if and only if the service requirement is reduced by at least one bus.  Based upon this, the B15, for example, could have limited-stop service for a short ½-hour span during the morning weekday peak from JFK Airport to Bedford-Stuyvesant, if feasible.  But for the B36, limited-stop service would not be feasible, because the boarding pattern is too evenly dispersed.

            This amendment, per MTA Bylaws, would be subject to the relevant internal approvals.  Afterward, it must then be approved by the MTA Transit Committee, then ratified by the MTA Board.  I have total confidence that such an amendment could be ratified in a timely manner in the near future.

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Please read page 8 of this attachment, then discuss.  Thank you.

Service Guidelines

[MysteriousBtrain]

This sounds like a great idea. 

 

Except limited routes are being phased out by SBS.

[B35 via Church]

2 hours ago, MysteriousBtrain said:

This sounds like a great idea. 

 

Except limited routes are being phased out by SBS.

I've been an advocate of LTD's & never cared much for the SBS brand & even I'm not bringing up LTD service, as if there's going to be some sort of rejuvenation of them or something.....

SBS is the wave of the future now..... Much like the MTA's overall incompetence, it is what it is....

 

 

[checkmatechamp13]

@dkupf I think the MTA is going to aim towards spacing the stops out and leaving it at that. Look at the South Bronx crosstowns...they are all proposed to stop at 3rd, Webster, Grand Concourse, and Jerome. What stops would a limited skip? (Or look at it this way, what stops does the Bx36 LTD skip under this redesign? Not too many)

[LTA1992]

On 12/13/2019 at 6:09 PM, checkmatechamp13 said:

@dkupf I think the MTA is going to aim towards spacing the stops out and leaving it at that. Look at the South Bronx crosstowns...they are all proposed to stop at 3rd, Webster, Grand Concourse, and Jerome. What stops would a limited skip? (Or look at it this way, what stops does the Bx36 LTD skip under this redesign? Not too many)

With proper stop spacing (every 400m or a five minute walk between stops) and things like All-Door Boarding, TSP, and bus lanes, would a limited even be necessary?

As I see it, that's just wasting resources on needlessly duplicative service. You could achieve similar (or even better) travel times with less expensive improvements that would require less resources to run, and thus, capacity to increase service all over.

The Queens redesign could be the first test of this since it's being done from scratch.

[checkmatechamp13]

@LTA1992 Limited-stop service doesn't cost anything extra (if anything it usually saves a bit of money) because you are simply converting some local trips to limited-stop trips.